


The Empty House

by Ael_tRlailiiu



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Merlin - Freeform, Missing Scene, Underworld
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-20
Updated: 2016-04-20
Packaged: 2018-06-03 10:28:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6607366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ael_tRlailiiu/pseuds/Ael_tRlailiiu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma and Killian take another look at the Sorcerer's house in the Underworld, in case he has unfinished business.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Empty House

“What are we doing back here?” Emma asked, looking up at the dark windows of the Sorcerer’s house. This corner of the Underworld always seemed darker than the rest, even in the daytime. Maybe Hades didn’t want anyone to look at it.

“We were in something of a hurry before, with the search for the book, and… a bit distracted as well.” Killian pushed aside the branches to allow Emma through. “I thought that a more thorough examination of the premises might turn up something useful.”

“Or you’re getting antsy from waiting? It’s okay.” She checked the door for new spells. “All clear.” The mansion felt empty. Silent and cobwebbed rooms stretched out all around them. She was about to ask Killian where he wanted to start when she saw that he was still in the doorway. “What’s…?” The penny dropped. “Oh.” They weren’t here looking for clues to defeating Hades. They were looking for Merlin. “Are we doing that talk again? About coming home?”

“No.” He shook his head and took a few steps into the room, still looking it like it might contain an unsprung trap. “No, my mind is made up there. I thought we might find something, is all. It doesn’t look like anyone’s been in the place other than ourselves.”

“Maybe that’s because he’s already moved on. Maybe he didn’t have anything to do here.”

“I really think he might have some unfinished business, Swan.”

She took his arm. “Killian. He knew what was going to happen, or at least that there was a good chance of it. He could have been a little more forthcoming with the warnings.”

“That doesn’t—”

“Change anything, I know. Believe me, I know. You saw how close I was. More than once. If you hadn’t stopped me….” It wouldn’t have ended with Zelena, she knew that now.  

“I didn’t let you stop me.”

 “I didn’t have your life. Your reasons. Your fight, for all of those years. I won’t say that I would never have done it. We both made some pretty big mistakes there.” Emma put her hand behind his neck and pulled him in close, forehead to forehead. He didn’t argue with her; she smiled a little. God, I love you. “Look, I saw a lot of Merlin’s memories in Camelot. He was a very complicated man; he’d lived a long time and seen a lot. I mean I don’t think he wanted things to happen the way they did, but I don’t think he would want revenge now, or anything like that.”

“It does seem unlikely. And he doesn’t appear to have been here, for whatever reason.” He lifted his head to look past her, still troubled.

“But you wanted to give him the chance. I get it. If it’ll help, we can search the house. Maybe he left a note. Stranger things have happened.”

“Let’s do that.”

They turned the place upside down, one silent, dusty room at a time. Emma hadn’t realized just how big the mansion was before. She went through the routine motions of checking drawers and under tables and tapping on walls for secret panels, old habits from another life coming back to her. Emma hadn’t thought about finding Merlin in the Underworld, but now that the idea had been raised, she would have liked to ask him some questions. The dream about Ruby had ended well after all, but that it had happened at all left her uneasy.

She threw the dust cover back over the last piece of furniture out of some vague sense that they ought to leave it tidy, just in case, and went back out into the foyer.

“Nothing in there. You find anything?” she asked.

“Only a lot of empty books and empty rooms.” Killian looked around, still frowning but not so tightly wound as he had been before. “It would appear that if he’s got any unfinished business, it’s with someone else.”

Emma locked the door behind them; no sense letting Hades in just because it seemed deserted. “You know, when we get back to Storybrooke, someone should do something with this place. I don’t think he would have liked it just sitting around empty.”

“Free hospital, or something of the sort?”

“Something like that, yeah. Let’s go, Dad’ll be wondering what’s keeping us.” They headed back to the loft. Emma looked back once at the silent house and wondered if its owner had ever been in the Underworld at all. “Wouldn’t put much past you,” she murmured to the blind windows. When they got home, it might be time to look for a few more answers.


End file.
